BJP ‘deceiving democracy’, women quota bill unanimously passed in 2023: Akhilesh

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday said the Women’s Reservation Bill was unanimously passed in Parliament in 2023 and the BJP is now “deceiving democracy” by misleading the people on the issue.

“The Women’s Reservation Bill was unanimously passed by Parliament in 2023. Still, the BJP leaders are misleading the people by spreading lies about it,” Akhilesh said, adding that the BJP was creating propaganda to divert attention of the people from core issues like corruption, loot, inflation and unemployment. “They are terrified of the increasing unity of the PDA community,” he said.

Addressing a meeting of former candidates and party functionaries from constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Akhilesh said that by spreading misinformation on the bill, the BJP was deceiving democracy and the people. He called upon the party functionaries to beware of the BJP’s conspiracies.

Akhilesh said the BJP operates as an “organised gang” with the sole agenda of spreading hatred to divide society — something that was the party’s favourite pastime before every election. “People no longer have confidence in the BJP. Even the BJP brass is aware of it. With nothing to showcase in terms of achievements on the development front, the BJP is going back to what it does best — create confusion and mislead people,” Akhilesh said.

“We have to be very careful with how we go about the 2027 Assembly polls in the state. There is no room for mistakes. People are fed up with the BJP govt and its defeat is assured in the Assembly polls early next year,” he said.

Underlining the need to focus on strengthening the party’s booth-level set-ups, the SP chief said the elections would have to be fought on the ground and there was no scope for the partymen to be complacent. Urging the cadre to roll up their sleeves for the polls, he said it was time that the party’s foot soldiers hit the ground running.

SP national secretary Rajendra Chaudhary, state president Shyam Lal Pal, and Samajwadi Mahila Sabha national president Seema Rajbhar were present at the meeting. Akhilesh concluded his address, reiterating the party’s commitment to ensuring social justice and uplift of the PDA community.